


5 years later

by asamandra



Series: Slave AU [5]
Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, F/M, M/M, Rape Aftermath, Revenge, the Avengers aren't nice guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-08
Updated: 2013-10-08
Packaged: 2017-12-28 20:39:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/996431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asamandra/pseuds/asamandra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he drives back from a mission with his team Jasper meets a few people he never expected to meet ever again...</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 years later

“Are you still sure were right here?” Jasper asked his companion but she only pressed her lips tight together and stared out the window onto the snowy street. She went at walking pace but felt the car slither nevertheless. 

“No, I'm pretty sure we got lost two hours ago but one of us was to proud to ask the _natives_ for direction.” 

“Melinda, there!” Jasper pointed and they saw a shield. Milk River Valley Lodge. 

“Yes, I can see it,” she said a little bit grumpy but already turned off from the road. A few minutes later they stopped the car in front of the house. Only one other car was there and it had the logo of the lodge on the side. They could see light through the windows so probably the owners were there.

When they opened the doors of the car the freezing air hit them and both shivered immediately. 

“Fuck, remind me to thank the director for this nice trip.” Melinda muttered and went to the door. Jasper followed close but he put on a beanie first. When they both stepped up the few stairs they found the door closed. Both looked at each other and then they knocked. 

They had to wait about a minute but then the door opened and a boy, about fifteen years old, opened it. 

“Uhm... hi?” He looked curiously at them.

“Hi, we got lost and we saw this lodge and we thought... are you open?” 

“DAD!” the boy yelled and stepped aside to let the two in. 

“Didn't we agree on not yelling in the house, William?” they heard a male voice and Jasper paled. He knew that voice. He hadn't heard it in years but he definitely _knew_ that voice. When the owner of the voice came around the corner he stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he spotted his two guests. They stared at each other for a long minute.

“Jasper,” the man finally said and then he smiled and hugged him.

“Phil? Holy mother of god!” Jasper grinned and hugged him back.

“Who's Phil, dad?” the boy asked curiously and turned to Phil. 

“William, can you get Frank for me, please? He might want to say hello to our guests.” 

Jasper was still baffled. Of all the people he met Phil Coulson here in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm. 

“Frank?” 

“Come in,” Phil said and pointed at a door behind him. They entered a warm and cozy living room with an open-hearth fireplace and comfortable looking, huge couch. “Oh, and call me John, please.” 

“Sure. You remember Agent May?” Jasper asked and Phil nodded. 

“Hey babe, Will said you wanted... oh... you?” The other man stopped in the doorjamb and swallowed. Phil held his hand out and Clint came over to him. They both sat down and gestured for their 'guests' to take a seat as well.

“So, why are you here?” Phil asked straightforward and looked at Jasper. 

“We... we got lost. We just finished a mission and wanted to drive back to Glasgow but apparently we're wrong.” 

“No, it's only a few miles west from here.” Clint said and glared at Jasper. The younger man had changed dramatically since he saw him for the last time. He had long hair and a ponytail now. And the last time he had seen him he had had lost weight but that was back and he was even more muscular as in his time as Hawkeye. Phil on the other side had lost hair and it was strange for Jasper to see his friend, who only wore suits at work, now in jeans and a sweatshirt. 

“You can stay for the night.” Phil said and Clint glared at him. “It's snowing,” he shrugged and Jasper could see him grit his teeth.

“You're lucky that I love you, babe. I'll go and look after Will,” Clint said and left the living room. 

“You are still together?” Jasper asked and Phil nodded. That moment the door opened again and Clint came back with a tray, three mugs and a teapot. He placed the tray on the table and then left again.

“Thanks,” Phil said and smiled. Then he turned to his guests who already stripped out of their warm jackets. “You want some tea?” Phil asked and poured the hot liquid into the mugs. 

“What are you doing here?” Agent May said, still looking at Phil a little bit dumbfounded. 

“We live here.” Phil just shrugged.

“But Coulson...” she started again and Phil shook his head. 

“No! Phil Coulson is dead. Clint Barton is dead. We're Frank and John Adams from San Diego, California and we live here with our son William and our daughter Grace.” 

“And you're hoteliers now?” She asked.

“No,” Phil chuckled. “The lodge is Frank's baby. I'm teacher at Glasgow High School. History and French.”

“You're a teacher?” Jasper's eyes nearly popped out his head. 

“Yes. I'm fluent in French and was always interested in history. And I like it.” 

“And you have children now,” Jasper smiled slightly.

“Yes, you've met William. Gracie is sleeping over at her friends place tonight. We adopted them five years ago, shortly after we married.” 

“Congratulations, Phi... John.” Jasper said and smiled.

“What about you? How's live treating you?” Phil asked and leaned back with his mug in his hand.

“I'm still with SHIELD. I have my own team now and... we're doing fine.”

“Still single?” Phil smiled and Jasper chuckled.

“Actually, no. You knew Agent Connors? We're together since two years and I asked her to marry me last month. She said yes.” 

“Jasper, congratulations! That's good news. Rosa is a nice person and... congratulations.” 

Agent May yawned audible and Phil rose to call for his husband.

“Can you show her to her room?” he asked and the younger man nodded.

“Thank you... John,” she said and nodded at him.

“Don't thank me, it's his lodge.” Phil smirked and pointed at Clint with his chin and she nodded thankfully at him as well.

When they were alone Jasper leaned back and looked at his friend, his mug in his hand. 

“How are you, Phil.” Jasper finally said and the older man pinched the bridge of his nose and gritted his teeth. He leaned slightly forward.

“Really, I'm fine. Since the Avengers have changed and Fury is... well... retired... I'm fine. _We're_ fine.”

“What do you know about it?” Jasper said and Phil sighed again. Then he rose and went to the wall, took one of the pictures and handed it to the younger Agent.

There were Phil and Clint together with William and two girls. The younger had to be Grace and the older... was Skye!

“Phil, she...” 

“She's our eyes and ears within SHIELD.” 

“She's a traitor?” Jasper's eyes went wide.

“No! No, she's as loyal as she can be to _you_ and your team but when she brought herself in the line of fire we promised to protect her little siblings. The guild was after them, they were in the foster system for too long, they would have been enslaved. When she joined your team William was nine and Grace six. She wanted them save. We adopted them and promised her to protect them and she... she helped us.” 

“What did she do?” Jasper sighed and reminded himself to check and double-check all the classified data again for any sign of illegal activities. 

“You don't want to know, Jasper.” 

“Probably.” He took a sip of his tea and then he looked at Phil again.

“So I guess you know that Maria is now Director of SHIELD?”

“Yes, I know.” Phil nodded.

 

_”Director Fury, the WSC is on the screen and they want to talk to you.”_

_“But I don't want to talk to them,” he said and turned in his chair to look at his assistant._

_“Sir, I... they seemed pretty... well... pissed,” the younger woman said and swallowed at his glare. She was used to it, she worked long enough for him but sometimes he still managed to make her flinch. With a sigh he rose and entered the conference room to talk to the guys._

_“Director Fury,” one of them said when he stepped in front of the camera so they could see him as well._

_“You wanted to talk to me?”_

_“Yes,” a woman said. “We got the information that you didn't stop your research with the super-soldier serum. Is that correct?”_

_“Who says this?” Fury asked and glared at the woman._

_“That doesn't matter. Is it true?”_

_“Well, we still try to find some ways to...” he started and then one of the screens changed and he saw a laboratory with people in lab coates doing_ things _to other people, tied to lab tables, screaming and squirming._

_“What is that?” Fury stared at the screen._

_“This is what we found on YouTube a few hours ago. If you want to take a look at the figure in the right corner.”_

_Fury looked and saw... himself. “What? No! That's not me!” he spat and glared murderously._

_“We don't care. It's on YouTube. Your name and the name of SHIELD is called and the people believe it. To prevent further damage we decided to accept your retirement.”_

_“My... my what? I don't intend to retire!”_

_“Yes, you do. Otherwise we're forced to shut SHIELD down and Commander Brand and SWORD will take over your department as well.”_

_“No, you can't do that. Not Brand! She's...”_

_“It's your decision,” one of the male members threw in. “You retire and Deputy-Director Hill will take your place or you refuse and everything will go to SWORD.”_

_“Fine! But I agree under protest. This video is fake and it will be proved.”_

_“That's possible. But Director Hill will deal with this situation, then.”_

 

“She's doing a good job. She had a few problems with the new members of the Avengers. Hank Pym is a good leader, but he's no soldier like Captain America has been. He's a scientist.” 

“Hank Pym? He's in charge now?”

“Yes. Like I said, he's not a soldier but a good leader, well together with Janet.”

“Wasp, right?” 

 

_”... to fight for the people here, for your safety and me and the Avengers...” Captain America stood in front of a bunch of reporters, brightly grinning, and gave an interview when he got interrupted._

_“What about Clint?” A voice said and Rogers stopped immediately. He looked around and tried to find a familiar face without success._

_“Like I said, me and the Avengers are here to guarantee your safety and no one has to suffer...”_

_“... to suffer like the man you held prisoner?” the voice asked again and the reporters looked around as well. Apparently it was one of them but no one could locate which one._

_“... no one has to suffer through enemies...”_

_“What if the enemies are your so called friends?”_

_“Who are you?” Rogers suddenly spat and glared at the press people._

_“What did you do to Hawkeye? Why is he not on your team anymore?”_

_“Hawkeye... he... he wasn't trustworthy anymore after Loki.” Rogers still searched for the voice and it seemed is if it would come of different directions. The reporters filmed and recorded everything enthusiastically._

_“Come out you coward and talk openly to me if you dare!” He snarled and walked through the reporters who followed him with their cameras and microphones. “And it's not forbidden to own a slave.”_

_“He was free the day he fought against the Chitauri together with you. He was free when you locked him up. He was free when you hurt him.” The voice came from different angles and the Captain turned around and stared at the reporters. That moment all of the phones of the reporters buzzed, beeped or played music and they looked at them. Rogers looked around and then he saw the video playing on one of the phones. It was him in Fury's office._

__“What about Coulson's slave?” he saw his video-self asking the Director.

“He's deregistered. He can go wherever he wants. I wanted to let him to Phil, maybe it helps him heal.” 

“I want him.” Rogers said and folded his arms in front of his chest.

“I can't do that, Captain. He's a free man.” 

“It's either that or me and Tony leave the team. And without us, what do you have?” 

“Captain, please.” 

“You bring him to us till tomorrow.” The figure on the screen said and then the videos stopped.

_”Captain, is that true?” One of the reporters asked._

_“You held Hawkeye prisoner?” Another threw in. The questions got more and more aggressive and Roger's grin was long faded when he finally fought his way out of the throng and disappeared on his motorcycle._

 

“What about Rogers?” Phil looked at Jasper and the man shook his head.

“He disappeared. No one knows where to and that's really impressive, given that he's such a noticeable appearance.”

“That's true.” Phil nodded. “But on the other hand, the heroic Captain turned out to be a bully and rapist. If I was him I'd hide, too. Petty that we couldn't find him. The authorities would be very interested in talking to him, I guess.” 

“Phil, what have you done? Was that your work?” Jasper gave him a suspicious glance and took a sip of his tea.

“As a matter of fact, that was us. We've paid a few of the reporters to ask those questions. Jasper, those men... they make themselves out to be heroes but they were worse than some of the villains they fought against.”

“That thing with Stark... was that your work, too?”

 

_Pepper sat in her office when her secretary came in. “Mrs. Potts-Stark, a courier just brought this envelope. It's confidential, so I didn't open it but the security said it's safe.”_

_“Thank you, Sarah.” Pepper said and waited till she left the room. The envelope came without a name of the sender and she thought about throwing it away but something on the handwriting was familiar and so she opened it. There was an USB flash drive, a file with photos and another file in it. She took the photos... and paled. Tony. With Steve. Kissing, Fumbling. Fucking._

_“Oh my god!” Pepper muttered and glared at the photos. And then there were some with Steve and Clint, Hawkeye, Phil's slave. And the other man seems really reluctant._ They forced him, _she thought. Under the photos were documents. Copies. An application to deregister Phil's slave, signed by both, Phil and Director Fury. The letter from the registration office with the granted deregistration. The date was highlighted. It was the day of the battle in New York. He was free since then?_ Oh my god! _she thought and looked at the photos again. One of them was especially brutal: Steve, using his strength to hold Clint down and Tony fucking him. Pepper could see the blood on the slave's... no... the ex-slave's legs and the pained expression in his face, the futile attempt to struggle and the knowledge that it was pointless in his eyes._

_“Oh god, Tony. What have you done?” She looked at the faces of the other two men and they seemed... turned on. The pain and the humiliation of a helpless man turned them on? She had to swallow._

_She took a closer look at the pictures and then she saw, that it was in the Tower, the place where she lived as well. She rummaged through the stuff on her desk and found the USB flash drive._

_When she opened the files she saw more videos, surveillance videos, apparently from JARVIS and there weren't only videos from Steve and Tony forcing themselves on Clint, no, there were others as well, Steve and Tony making out, kissing, fumbling, fucking in the bed she thought she shared with Tony. He cheated on her, he cheated with Steve, they raped another man together. Pepper closed her eyes and swallowed hard but then she remembered the other file in the envelope._

_Carefully she opened it, dreading what it might contain. But when she saw it she stopped and blinked. It was her prenup. And on it was a post-it. **This is the last existing copy. It miraculously disappeared and no one, except you, knows now what's in it. Use it wisely.** The note said. Pepper deliberated a few minutes but then she rose and went to the document shredder and destroyed it. And with a smirk on her face she called her lawyers to file for divorce._

 

“Stark started to drink.” Jasper said. “And I mean, more than what he consumed before. “He wasn't sober in weeks after his wife left him. Captain Rogers gone, Pepper gone, AIM somehow built a better reactor than his ARC-reactor, an advanced version of it and then he lost half of his company because he didn't have a prenuptial contract. But in all honesty, I don't miss him. Iron Patriot is a better asset to the team than Stark. He's reliable.” 

“I can't say that I feel sorry for him,” Phil said. That moment the door opened and Clint came in, a plate on his hand and with a smile he placed it on the table between them. 

“I thought maybe you're hungry. I made a few sandwiches and I brought a plate to Agent May as well.” He said and with a small kiss from his husband he left the living room again.

“You should try them. He's a great chef and even if we don't have too much guests now outside of the season but at least people come to eat here.” Phil said and Jasper took one of the sandwiches. It was really good.

“How's it going with Banner's cousin? Jennifer Walters?” Phil asked when he heard Jasper hum approvingly.

“Better than with Banner. She's... she can control her other self better than him.”

“Anyone knows what happened to him?”

“No. Since his protectors Fury, Stark and Rogers were out of order General Ross came after him and he disappeared again.”

 

_Bruce slipped into his tiny room after looking around one last time that no one was after him. He was tired, it had been a long day. He visited with his colleagues from Médecins Sans Frontières three small villages outside of the city Al-Fashir. But as soon as he had opened the door he sensed another presence in his room and he wanted to turn._

_“Wait,” a voice said and he knew the voice. He swallowed and entered his room and then he saw a man he hadn't expected to see again._

_“What do you want, Agent Coulson?” Bruce asked and sat down at his cot._

_“I'm here to tell you, that General Ross has your lead and it's quite possible that he will find you within a week. You should leave.”_

_Bruce wiped over his face with a towel and opened a bottle of water. “Why are you telling me this? Isn't this what you wanted? To get the monster locked up in a cage again?”_

_“I've seen the surveillance videos from the tower. This is my way to thank you for trying to stop Rogers and Stark, for patching him up when they hurt him too much and for... you know... not doing what they have done.”_

_“I didn't knew it, Coulson. Really, had I known that he was deregistered... I'm sorry.”_

_“I know. And I'm sorry for calling you monster. I don't know what they would've done to him if you hadn't been there.”_

_“It's okay. You know that I'm not an abolitionist but I don't want a slave to be harmed as well.” He opened his shoes and started to strip out of his soaking wet socks._

_“There's something a friend of me made for you. Use it wisely.” He said and handed the other man an envelope._

_“What is this?” Bruce said and looked at the seal. Phil turned and smiled at him._

_“A chance.”_

 

“That's why they couldn't find him,” Jasper smiled.

“Yes. It was a new identity. I don't know where he is or what he does now. I guess Skye can find him if she wants to, but...”

“But you don't want her to.” Jasper finished his sentence.

“Yes. It's true what I've said to him. I'm not sure that Clint would've made it without his help. You should've seen the video's, Jasper. They were so... cruel. And the only thing Banner ordered him to do was to fetch him his medicine, food or tea or to massage his temples when he had a migraine. Do you know that he stopped Stark from using Clint as test subject in his labs?” 

“What? No!” 

“He experimented with the super soldier serum, you know, the Abomination version, and he wanted to use it on him. Banner stopped him.”

“That's why you helped him?”

“Yeah, that. And maybe because Ross knew where he was because I let something slip. I really wanted him locked up at first. But he at least wasn't cruel and he really didn't know anything about the deregistration.”

“Okay. And the others? I know that Thor left the day after you retrieved Clint. What did you do to him?”

“He always told us that it was sin to have slaves but he did the same and I've told him. Guess he was ashamed about himself. The next day he went back to Asgard and never came back, I've heard.” 

“So. Do I need to ask if you know what happened to Barnes and Romanov?”

“No, you don't need to ask. Romanov met a few old friends from the Red Room who were still pissed that she disappeared...” 

 

_She felt a small impact at her left thigh and she looked down. A tranquilizer dart stuck in it and her head snapped up. The last thing she saw before her vision went black was Coulson and Clint on a roof, together with her former commander. The man grinned and shook Coulson's hand while Clint looked down at her and gave her a mocking salute before he shouldered his gun and wrapped his arm around Phil. She heard steps arriving in the street but she already had lost consciousness when they grabbed her._

 

“... and Barnes? Barnes was personal.”

“What happened to him?” Jasper asked, fearing the worst.

“He's alive. But I guess when he has a lucid moment he wishes that he is dead. He was the worst of all.”

“But you didn't even know him,” Jasper looked questioningly.

“No. I didn't know him. Not until I saw the video footage. We have all of it, Jasper. He learned a lot of _useful_ things in Russia. Did you know that?”

“What...” Jasper started and then Phil leaned forward and wiped over his face. 

“You knew Clint before I _died_ and you have seen him the day I quit.”

“Yes. Oh my god, you want to tell me...”

“It was Barnes. He tortured Clint into submission. Rogers and Stark _only_ raped him and wanted to experiment on him but what Barnes did. Jasper, I've seen many things in my life and some of them weren't nice and you know that I'm not highly sensitive. But that? I puked. Twice.” Phil leaned back and wiped over his face before he looked back at his friend.

“It's five years since we disappeared and there are still noises who startle Clint, he still has nightmares every other night and wakes shaking and screaming. Sometimes, when it's really bad, I find him kneeling at the floor, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes lowered, after five years and many hours of therapy. This guy is a monster and the only reason why he was on the team was because Rogers and Romanov insisted. They said they trusted him. Rogers still saw his childhood friend and Romanov fucked him years ago. Of course, I've seen the reports from the shrinks who said he's okay but... hell, no! This guy was not okay. He was still a brutal sadist and Clint was at his mercy. He broke him.” 

“Oh god, I... I never knew. When he was at the base he was... nice. He joked with the other Agents and... what happened to him?” 

“I have a friend who has a friend... you know... he's in the nuthouse. And we made sure that he will get the wrong stuff till the end of his life. He will stay there, without his shiny new mechanical arm and on drugs who let him appear completely bonkers but lucid enough to know what happens to him.” 

“That's cruel, Phil.” 

“No, that's what he deserves. He can't harm anyone ever again. And as long as Clint has those scars on body and soul, those scars this monster left on him, as long he will stay there,” Phil spat. “He deserves to suffer every day as long as Clint suffers.” 

“So, you destroyed the whole Avengers.” Jasper stated and he was pale like a ghost. He knew something strange happened to the 'original Avengers' but he never expected that it was Phil who took them out.

“I gave you better Avengers. Ant Man and Wasp, She-Hulk, Iron Patriot, Spider Man, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. They are better people than the 'Originals'. They care about people and T'Challa even opened Wakanda for slaves on the run. They can live there when they manage to escape and they don't hand them back to their owners. Did you know that they have doctors there who can remove the trackers from the slaves's spines? They don't need to be burnt through. They can remove them now without crippling them.”

“Yes, I know all this. But Phil, this is... you are not the man I knew all those years ago.”

“And I've told you, I am not Phil Coulson anymore. Phil Coulson died five years ago. He was an idealist who believed in heroes and in the good in man. He died when Loki stabbed him and he had to discover that those people he called friends, he admired, were the real monsters and worse than most villains. He died, when he had avenged his love. 

No, Jasper. I'm not this man anymore. I'm John Adams and I'm a realist. I believe in the small things now. I believe in my family and my ordinary job. I consider it a good day when Frank doesn't suffer from flashbacks, when my children come home from school and get good grades, when we have our neighbors over for barbeque, you know, small things. The world? I don't care anymore. To hell with the world. They don't care about us as well.” 

“Phil, you...” 

“John, not Phil,” he corrected him once again.

“John.” Jasper repeated. 

“I can give you all the evidence so you can see it for yourself. And ask yourself, what would you've done if it had been Rosa.”

Jasper stayed quiet for some time and then he nodded. “I will take a look at it,” he said and tried to stifle a yawn. But Phil... John... had seen it. 

“Come on, I'll show you to your room.” He rose and smiled and Jasper yawned again. 

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea.” They left the living room and went upstairs and Jasper followed Phi... John to a corridor with a few doors. He opened the second one and let him in. It was a cozy room and the bed was really inviting right now. He even found the duffel bag he had left in their car on the counter. Someone... Barton? No... Frank Adams now... apparently had fetched it. 

“Good night, Jasper.” John said and closed the door behind him. 

 

Jasper woke because he heard an unfamiliar sound. He opened his eyes and looked around. Lodge, right. He rose, his gun drawn and sneaked to the door. There it was again. It sounded... as if someone screamed. 

Carefully he opened the door and looked out into the corridor. And Melinda, who had the room beside him, had heard it, too. She was out and looking for the noise. Together they followed the sound but when they discovered it's source they both looked at each other, deeply embarrassed. 

“Shhh... it's okay, you're safe. Nothing can happen to you.” They heard Phil's... John's voice through a door.

“I _know_ , but the dream, it was so vivid,” the other voice, Frank, said.

“You know Jasper and you know Melinda. They won't bring you back to them.” Jasper paled when he heard him say this. “And by the way, you know that we destroyed them.”

“Yes, I know. I know. But... in this dream, they handed me over and Ma... Steve grinned and Tony, too. And Barnes waited in his room for me.” 

“They can't hurt you. No one can hurt you anymore. I've promised you that.” 

Jasper blushed and gestured for Melinda to follow him. Back in front of their rooms Melinda sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “They messed him up pretty bad, huh?” 

“Yeah.” Jasper opened his door and went back to the bed, placed the gun on the nightstand before he laid down. He would take the footage and the other evidence with him and he would watch it. He would have to talk to Skye and he would tell Melinda on their drive back. But he already had asked himself the question. If it had been Rosa, he had done the same. And if only half of it was true then they deserve everything that happened to them. And by the way, Phil... yes, Phil, not John, Phil was right. The new Avengers were the better ones. No Diva's like Stark and Rogers, no nutjobs like Barnes and Romanov, no ticking time bombs like Banner or Thor. True, Hank Pym wasn't easy to handle as well and Scarlet Witch was... strange, to put it mildly, but Maria could work with those people. He yawned and drifted back to sleep.

 

The next morning was Saturday. Jasper woke and went to the bathroom to shower, shave and brush his teeth. When he went down the stairs he could smell coffee and bacon. Melinda was already there and sat together with Phi... John, Frank and William in their own kitchen, not the guest dining room. 

“Good morning,” Melinda smiled when she saw him. 

“Morning,” he mumbled and sat down when John gestured at an empty chair. William handed him the coffee pot and he poured himself a cup of the hot liquid. He looked around. They had made a huge breakfast, pancakes, waffles, fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon, rolls and different spreads, orange juice, cereals and milk and of course coffee.

“You should try something else than coffee. Frank is really a great chef.” Melinda shoved the plate with the pancakes in his direction. And she was right. They were delicious. With white chocolate chips and powdered sugar. The topics while eating never got serious, only small talk, about the job at the school, about tourism here in the area, about other trivial stuff. Jasper discovered that William was as talented as his big sister with computers when only half of his stories were true. 

About an hour later he and Melinda were in the hall, their bags beside them and ready for departure when John suddenly disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a sealed envelope. 

“Everything is in there. Use it wisely,” the man, formerly known as Phil Coulson, said and then he hugged him. “I've missed our meetings in diners,” he added. And now he was really convinced that he wasn't Phil anymore. Phil never showed emotions and affections. John did. He held Frank in one of his arms and William in the other while he watched his former colleagues drive back to the street.

 

“Did he say what he wanted?” Clint asked when the car disappeared on the street and looked at his husband. Will was back in the house.

“He said, they were back from a mission. I'm tempted to believe him.” 

“Time to move on?” the younger man asked and then they heard Will's voice from the house.

“But this time someplace with a little bit more sun, please.” Both men followed the boy into the living room.

“What about Hawaii?” Phil-John suggested and both, Clint and Will nodded vehemently.

“Sounds nice. I can open a surfer's bar,” Clint grinned and Will yelped in excitement.

“Yeah! I always wanted to surf! And Gracie loves the sea.” 

“Okay, Hawaii then. Aloha, guys.” John smiled when he looked at his family and he knew that he didn't regret one second to have them. All of them. Clint, Will, Grace, even Skye. His decisions to leave SHIELD and to ruin the Avengers were the best he ever made. They gave him what he had now. A family.

**Author's Note:**

> [asamandra on tumblr](http://asamandra.tumblr.com/)


End file.
